The Morphology of the Rat Vibrissal Array: A Model for Quantifying Spatiotemporal Patterns of Whisker-Object Contact
Figure 2
Ellipsoidal fits to the mystacial pad.
(A) An example from one rat of the best-fit ellipsoid to whisker base-points on the right side of the mystacial pad. Whisker base-points are shown in blue and the best-fit ellipsoid in cyan. The rat head is placed in the standard position and orientation, and the view for this figure was chosen so as to best illustrate the mystacial pad. (B–D) Aerial view of the mystacial pad ellipsoid fits for each of the three rats scanned in 3D. Note the close fits to the contours of the rat's cheek (gray curve). (E) Model ellipsoid obtained from ellipsoids averaged across all rats. All base-points from all rats scanned in 3D are shown. For all plots B–E, left array base-points and best-fit ellipsoids are in blue; right array base-points and best-fit ellipsoids are in red; and grid lines represent 5 mm increments on all axes.